Summary

Forrest Pogue (1912-1996) was undoubtedly one of the greatest World War II combat historians. Born and educated in Kentucky, he is perhaps best known for his definitive four-volume biography of General George C. Marshall. But, as Pogue's War makes clear, he was also a pioneer in the development of oral history in the twentieth century, as well as an impressive interviewer with an ability to relate to people at all levels, from the private in the trenches to the general carrying four stars. Pogue's War is drawn from Forrest Pogue's handwritten pocket notebooks, carried with him throughout the war, long regarded as unreadable because of his often atrocious handwriting. Pogue himself began expanding the diaries a few short years after the war, with the intent of eventual publication. At last this work is being published. Supplemented with carefully deciphered and transcribed selections from his diaries, the heart of the book is straight from the field. Much of the material has ever before seen print. From D-Day to VE-Day, Pogue experienced and documented combat on the front lines, describing action on Omaha Beach, in the Huertgen Forest, and on other infamous fields of conflict. He no

Author Notes

Forrest C. Pogue received his doctorate in European history in 1939, five years before he would begin his first interviews as a combat historian off the coast of Normandy. He died in 1996 Franklin D. Anderson, Pogue's nephew by marriage, is a longtime educator

Choice Review

Stephen E. Ambrose calls combat historian Forrest Pogue's wartime diary "priceless." Pogue was the first and among the best historians of WW II. This PhD sergeant and his associates landed at Normandy one day after D-Day and interviewed participants through the end of the European War. His interviews and personal diaries gave him the insights necessary to write the official history of the command, The Supreme Command (1954). Pogue interviewed privates through generals. One centerpiece is a long interview with Lieutenant John Spaulding, who reached the bluff overlooking Omaha Beach. The author writes of officers stealing the rides of enlisted men after a show, but he also writes of "the magnificent reconnaissance of Lieutenant Hudson Hatcher, who would not send his men but personally went on a one-man patrol." General collections. J. P. Hobbs North Carolina State University